2 accused of theft in Mount Airy Casino comp swindle

Wednesday

May 21, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Two men are charged with manipulating players' compensation checks at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Paradise Township, stealing a total of more than $71,000 while both men were casino bartenders between October 2011 and March 2013, state police said.

ANDREW SCOTT

Two men are charged with manipulating players' compensation checks at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Paradise Township, stealing a total of more than $71,000 while both men were casino bartenders between October 2011 and March 2013, state police said.

Henry Zaengle Simmons, 28, of Ridgeland, S.C., and John Anthony Pezzuti, 49, of Canadensis, are each charged with multiple felony and misdemeanor counts of theft by deception through false impression. Simmons was arraigned on charges Tuesday, while Pezzuti had been arraigned May 9.

Both are awaiting future preliminary hearings before Magisterial District Judge Phil Riley, who covers Paradise Township, to determine if their cases should be dismissed or sent to Monroe County Court, where each defendant can then go to trial, plead guilty or plead no contest. Both men were free on unsecured bail as of Tuesday.

They no longer work at the casino.

According to an affidavit by State Police Cpl. Sandra DeAndrea, who's stationed at the Mount Airy Casino Gaming Enforcement Office, both men admitted that Simmons in March 2011 approached and then showed Pezzuti how to manipulate the players' comp system through the cash register and take cash out.

A player would use his/her comp check from the casino hosts at the restaurant bar, according to the affidavit.

Simmons and Pezzuti would add cash receipts, sometimes from food coupons or other compensations, onto the comp check until the total amount of those receipts came close to the comp check's amount, the affidavit states. The defendants would then pocket the total amount of cash for the receipts from the register.

This was done on discretionary comp receipts bearing numbers in a certain sequence, according to the affidavit. Someone other than the player the comp was intended for could manually enter a discretionary comp receipt number and pocket the cash.

Asbury met with Regional Marketing Director Paul Edwards, who reported a discrepancy with a comp for a casino player Edwards had been hosting.

Edwards said the comp was issued to the player March 20, 2013, in the amount of $200, but cleared the next day in the amount of $172, the affidavit states. Edwards questioned this because he had eaten dinner with the player March 20 and knew the player's only expense on the comp had been a $27 Norwegian salmon dish.

It was later discovered that someone else had added two cleared cash checks to the comp. A further investigation revealed other cases of past cash checks being cleared through players' comps, and that Simmons and Pezzuti had been bartending on those particular dates.

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